Timo McIntosh Arts

Lepidodactylus lugubris

Known as the mourning gecko or the maritime gecko.
This spieces is native to the pacific islands but has spread throughout most of the pacific.
The average size is 48mm.

These little geckos are mainly known for being pathenogenic. They reproduce without mating.
Due to a mutation, their eggs contain a complete set of chromasones unlike the normal half set. Because the eggs don't need any more genes from a mate, they mature into perfect clones of the parent.

The origin of this species was investigated through genetic markers by Ray Radtkey et al at UCSD. Geckos can readily interbread with other species, and in so doing they can generate genetic mutations witch allow them to overcome the typical sterility of the offspring. In the case of mourning geckos the mutation that led to pathenogenisis occurred 4 or 5 times from the intermating of two parent species.

To find the parent spieces of L. lugubris, Radtkey utilized genetic testing to compare possible parents. Through the mitacondrial DNA, which is housed in the energy room of cells and is only passed through the maternal line of all species, The UCSD team was able to determine the maternal parent relatively quickly. ( This is how scientists determined that all modern humans originated from a signal female in northern Africa 30,000 years ago ). Lepidodactylus moestus was found to be the female parent spices.

Next the research team was able to back out proteins that were in lugubris but not in moestus and compare them to other possible parent spieces. The researchs discovered the male parent was a an unnamed spieces native to a few pacific islands. The only place the parents species overlap is in the Arno Atoll in the Marshal Islands.

The Arno Atoll was formed about 4000 years ago from volcano mount which allowed for the growth a thick coral reef. In those 4000 years the volcano mount eroded away into the ocean leaving a pearl necklace of coral islands. From these small islands lugubris spread to most of the islands of the pacific most likely hitching rides on the sleek canoes of the Marshalese natives. Distributions today spread from both coasts of Costa Rica to Hawaii and Austraillia. Populations in costa Rica seem to be limited to human dwellings, and Hawaiian geckos seem to be in direct competition with other more aggresive sexual house geckos.